Toadstools for Tea

It has been a poisonous time on shift this week not counting the usual cases that we have in.

Had a cat in whose renal parameters were all over the place but the worst was the way the calcium was heading to ground zero on subsequent checks. Given how his bloods stacked the vet was certain it was antifreeze tox. It is so depressing to see a lovely cat folding in and dying his bloods going worse and worse and nothing we could do would help. The vet rang the owner about 2am and had a chat.

A dog we had in had decided on a walk that those yummy orange toadstools growing out that nice smelly pile of cow dung were put there as a meal just for him. Being as he was a Labrador by the time the owner got to him and got him off the “meal” there was not much left.
He had a bad night of hallucinating (we think) as his eyes were like saucers and he was falling all over the place. With the aid of lots of iv fluids and some other treatment at the end of 24hrs he was able to go home with just checks for a couple of weeks.
We were all relieved to see him go because he was farting with a vengeance. To quote the vet “something horrible crawled up the dog’s arse and died” Critical care was so aromatic even with my bad cold l could smell it.

Another Labrador had been pulled off different toadstools [not orange ones] to late and he was very bad. His pcv (thickness of red blood cells) was 76. It should normally be max 55. He was so dehydrated that he did not have blood but syrup in his veins.
He needed fluid flung down his iv in vast quantities. He was shaking and collapsed, he had stinking blood leaking out of his rectum and saliva running like a bath out of his mouth. In fact saliva flowed out of the kennel like a tide onto the floor.
His owners were rung in the middle of the night and warned that it was unlikely he would see the morning and to be prepared for the worst.
Never say never though, at about 4am he was more alert, moved to a comfier position on his own and slowed down salivation. I went to do his stats and he raised his read and checked me out. By change over at 7am his rectal blood had stopped leaking.
He whizzed through 3 litres of fluid in 10hours on my shift, not counting what he had before l got in and more during the day, when l got in l the next night was over the moon to find out he had gone home. Again checks over the next couple of weeks but looking good.

Mind you l recon it was the noisy cat in the kennel above him must have helped keep him awake. He was claustrophobic. He had been in an RTA his back leg was past salvation. They had put a support dressing called a Robert Jones on and he had been going mad the dressing had slipped and it needed changing. The vet decided that if he was in so much pain the leg would come off in the night but in the mean time the 2nd dressing slipped.
He held the cat while l cut it [dressing] off, after first unscrewing the leg a couple of times so it faced the correct way.
We put him back in the kennel to see if he would settle down often animals just can not handle the dressing.
No it was obvious the leg was not bothering him but he loathed the kennel. He would pin himself to the door shaking it and yowling in anger leg whirring in the air. When not pinned to the door he did not even look at his leg but gazed angrily out. Stats were impossible, as soon as l tried to slide open the door l was being attacked by angry cat.
We got too busy for the leg so the vet gave him a very deep sedative and he took several hours to wake up to the agitated state he had been in.

His leg was removed the next day and he was sent home, a bit woozy but he was so stressed, first act on awakening was to attack the door. By now he had made his feelings clear that it was better he was sent home with less strength analgesia treatment instead of keeping him in overnight for stronger as we would normally do.

Yet 2 more dangerous dogs in that were grabbed on behalf of the police with instructions to slide water under the door lob food over the top and don’t go near them. One bit the collection driver the other tried.
Actually it was 3 dangerous dogs but number 3 was a boisterous staffie cross with no manners. We had him out having a game and a hunt the treat time and he was fine with us, what he needed was discipline. The most dangerous thing about him was his snapping for treats so we dropped them on the floor.